Svalbard

		Norge - Norway - Noreg
		Svalbard

Svalbard is the name of the whole group of islands, and each has one of their own. In 1925 Norway an international treaty gave Norway the managing power of the area. Spitzbergen is the largest of the islands and where you will find the areas where people have their living quarters. The largest one is Longyearbyen, followed by Barentsburg and Ny Ålesund. Not many years ago the only activity that took place was coalmining and hunting, today sience is a much larger activity, from many counties around the wold, and specially during 2007-08 which are the international polar years.

I have here the pleasure of presenting images from the visit I made to the islands in 2007. We visited Spitzbergen, Norskøya, Moffen and Nordaustlandet. We were sailing with the old costalsteamer 'Nordlys' which was small enough to give a great atmosphare. The guides were very clever and could tell a lot of the interesting history you can find up here. Hope this can give you a little impression of live this high up towards the North Pole. Longyearbyen are situated at 78 degrees north, and we passed the 80th parallell on the trip.

You get a larger picture clicking on the thumbnails, also usually showing more than the small one